


She Met Death Upon the Road

by Oakwyrm



Category: Thrilling Intent (Web Series)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Gen, Past Character Death, ambiguously shippy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-15 00:41:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5765164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oakwyrm/pseuds/Oakwyrm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being immortal has its downsides. Actually it’s all downsides. There’s nothing good about it. Especially when you’re the only immortal you know and you don’t even know why you’re immortal in the first place. Welcome to Aesling’s life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Met Death Upon the Road

**Author's Note:**

> Well this happened...

The Wanderer was a figure of legend at this point. Everyone knew her in some way or another. Some said she was a fey creature, some said cursed soul. Some maintained that she was a sorceress of terrible power. In similar fashion, her physical description also varied. Some claimed she was an ethereal beauty, with hair black as the night she wandered in. Some said her features had never been seen, hidden forever under a cloak of forest green. Some few still held the correct description in their minds. A pale woman with hair of purest white and golden eyes that glowed dimly in the dark of the night around her.

    The Wanderer herself, Aesling by truer name, was rather sick of all the legends. Some even claimed she had been a God, long ago. Which was bullshit. The only thing she was was unfortunate in her lot in life. Still, her title of “Wanderer” was apt. She was never off the road, never settled down anywhere, not permanently anyway. It just so happened that when you never aged people would get suspicious if you stayed in one place too long. She sighed and looked up at the stars twinkling in the night sky. She had seen so much in her long life. The rise and fall great kingdoms, season change, the world growing and developing around her as she remained stationary, frozen in time.

    She sat down heavily, feeling the grass below her she flopped down and continued her stargazing. She had been alone for so long it seemed almost as if she could hear the world around her whisper to her sometimes. She closed her eyes and let the faces of those she had lost swim before her eyes. Thog and Moren. They had grown up with her. Been her first friends and the only ones not to reject her when she just… stopped. Thog had been severely weirded out, true, but he’d stuck by her. Largely thanks to Moren, probably. But they had aged, withered and turned to dust before she could even blink.

    Gregor Hartway and Kyr Fiore. To some extent Inien, though they hated each other at first Inien had stuck around the longest. Kyr had frustrated her a lot. Gregor… he had been the most painful. Ashe had seen him grow. He had started with the light of life in his eyes, with a spring in his step despite the shitty hand fate had dealt him he had been a bundle of sunshine and energy. She had been at his side as that light faded from his eyes. She had been at his side as his movements slowed, as age dragged him down and away from her. At least he passed peacefully, in the end, it was more than she could have said for some of her old friends.

    She sighed and sat up, trying to force back tears. She wasn’t one to cry. Not often at least. Her automatic response to sorrow was to draw away from her friends and into herself for a bit but… there wasn’t anyone to draw away _from_ anymore. She hugged herself and hummed a soft tune in an effort to calm down.

    “Are you Aesling by chance?” a voice from behind her made her whirl around quickly, hand going automatically to the small sword she carried. A figure in the shadows of the tree-line behind her stepped out onto the field. A man with long blond hair, red horns and a devil’s tail. She narrowed her eyes.

    “Who wants to know?” she asked. He grinned and bowed.

    “My name is Markus Velafi and I have been looking for you for a _very_ long time,” he walked up to her and sat down. She looked at him suspiciously.

    “Why?” she asked. “If it’s because you think I have some great power you can get your hands on by killing me and consuming my organs at some obscure temple as a blood moon rises on the fifteenth day of the sixth month that’s not true,” she added. The stranger, Markus, gave her an odd look.

    “That’s very specific are you OK?” he sounded genuinely concerned.

    “No! All my friends are dead, I can’t _age_ and I get some weirdo after me trying to sacrifice me for infinite power every other week!” her tone was distressed and angry, then she realized she had just snapped at a complete stranger. “Ah… sorry,” she muttered. He shook his head.

    “It sounds like you’ve had it rough,” he said and looked up at the sky and the stars above them. “I’m sorry,” she gave him a weird look.

    “It’s not your fault,” she said. Then she got suspicious. “Is it?” he laughed but there was something heavy behind that merry façade.

    “No,” he said as he studied her. She met his gaze with a still suspicious one of her own.

    “Who are you?” she asked again. He chuckled.

    “Markus Velafi,” he replied. She resisted the urge to smack him.

    “Fine! _What_ are you?” she snapped. He snorted, plainly her annoyed reaction was what he had been looking for.

    “Death,” he said she blinked at him.

    “Death as in _death_ Death, or Death as in you’re full of yourself?” she asked. Markus gave her a weird look.

    “Oh, I’m full of myself,” he said and he sounded _way_ too proud of that fact. “But I’m also actually Death, the Grim Reaper, etc., etc.,” she stared at him before scrambling closer to him with an eager look on her face.

    “Then do you know why I’m like… like this?” she asked, gesturing to herself. “Can you reverse it?” she knew her tone was painfully hopeful. Markus shook his head and his smile faltered a bit.

    “I can tell you why but there’s nothing I can do about it,” he said she sat down heavily and looked at him.

    “So?” she prompted.

    “You’re the Watcher,” he said as if that was supposed to answer all of her questions. Her absolutely _withering_ look seemed to tell him it did, in fact, not and he continued. “You’re like me, not human,” Ashe stared at him.

    “My parents were human,” she said in a deadpan sort of voice.

    “Doesn’t necessarily mean you are,” Markus shrugged. “See, about, what? Three thousand years ago? Five?” he shrugged. Ashe sighed.

    “Eight thousand nine hundred and twenty-five years,” she said. “If you’re trying to figure out how long I’ve been alive that’s the answer,” he stared at her blankly for a moment.

    “You’re still keeping track?” he asked.

    “Yes, I’m still keeping track!” Ashe exclaimed.

    “Anyway, about a month or so before your birth we lost the old Watcher to an… unfortunate misunderstanding with an unexpectedly strong monster hunter. He managed to kill them and since there needs to be someone to watch this world grow and record it in some way or another, maps work too-” he assured her.

    “…I wasn’t really concerned about that…” she said honestly.

    “Well anyway, the old Watcher was reincarnated in you.”

    Ashe leaned back, steadying herself on her hands and stared at Markus for a long while. She had no idea how to respond to that. The silence dragged on for a while until she finally shook herself out of her shocked stupor and managed to respond.

    “What… what happens now?” she asked weakly. Markus shrugged.

    “You can go about your life pretending you don’t know, I’ll just drop in every now and then to take copies of those maps. Or whatever you decide to do to preserve the world. Ooor you could come with me and see your friends again and continue to visit whenever you like. You’ll still need to be here-” he waved his hand around vaguely. “-to chronicle the passing of time, but I know for a fact there are some people in my care that would like to see you again,” his tone was gentle as he stood and stretched out his hand to her.

    “I…” Ashe couldn’t quite decide what to say. She wanted to see her friends again, of course she did. So very badly. Markus’ eyes twinkled.

    “They actually have a club, the “We Knew Aesling” club, hold weekly meetings and everything,” Ashe surprised herself by laughing.

    She met Death upon the road that day, and she willingly took his hand.


End file.
